I aspire to glamour. My life is not remotely glamorous.
I'll never walk a red carpet in my life, and I don't have the money to buy super expensive things, but that doesn't mean I have to put on mom jeans and pull my hair into a scrunchie and give up. I am Glam-O-Mommy! (At least in my own mind.)

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

I received my first Stitch Fix in mid-March and up until I received Stitch Fix #6 last month and #7 this week, I was pretty happy with what I was receiving in my Fixes. But these last two months have me wondering exactly who Stitch Fix thinks I am.

Fix #6

I don't even have the energy to label what everything was so here are just the pictures from #6.

I would never carry this. Going back.

The stylist wrote she thought I would like these jeans since I said I wanted tight pants. No, I never said that. I like pants to fit. I said I wanted CROPPED pants, not tight ones. Going back.

Love the pattern and color of this dress.

Absolutely hate the gather at the waist.

Also, the "waist" is two-plus inches ABOVE my real waist. Going back.

Loved the color, not a fan of the sleeves and the neckline was crazy. I had no idea what to do with it to make it look okay. Going back.

Cute chevron pattern, love the color. KEEPER. My only one of Fix #6.

Fix #7

With my first less-than-stellar Fix behind me, I had high hopes for #7. Again, I'm not even going to list all the names and prices out, just give you the pictures.

Let's start just by looking at the color palette in this box. Could it BE more drab? Am I going to prison? Ugh.

Love the color of this shirt and that was about it. Material was too...flimsy.

I like clothes that are more structured, where collars can stand up without having to be propped up. BUT SEE THESE PANTS STITCH FIX? I WANT THEM IN ALL COLORS! (Margaret Emer cropped pants from an early successful Fix.)

It also pulled weirdly around the chest area and I am not remotely stacked!

Loved the color and some of the detailing on this shirt, which won't show up in the picture, but this was too...large. Two of me could have fit in here.

Too large.

I have a huge handful of fabric gathered behind my back. If the shirt fit more like this, I might've kept it.

Could this top make me look any wider?

Drab color, fits like an army tent. Just, no.

This is my "What the hell Stitch Fix?!" face. Am I a jailbird? Who would look good in this? Answer: definitely not me.

And once again, the top finger is pointing at where Stitch Fix thinks my waist is, while the lower finger is pointing at where my waist really is.

Here's the face again. Seriously, who do they think I am? They have a link to my blog and my Pinterest board. Quick glances at those would not show anything like this outfit!

The pants were comfortable and fit well, but I wasn't a fan of the drab color, they were the kind of fabric which will never look ironed, and the legs were a few inches too long. Even with heels on, the pants would drag on the ground!

So, for the first time, I did not keep one single item from my Fix. I'm disappointed. I feel like the first few stylists I had found items that were cute and that I loved, but these last two months, I wonder if the stylists even looked at my Style Profile, blog and Pinterest boards, or read my feedback and notes from previous Fixes. Based on what I received and their notes (the note on this Fix was short and pretty impersonal....seemed like "Hannah" just grabbed stuff and threw it in a box), I don't think so.

Visit my previous Fix blog posts for a better review of Stitch Fix than this one. Stitch Fix back in the good old days...

Will I Stay With Stitch Fix?
I am going to give it another couple of months. I don't want to give up on it just yet. But if the next few Fixes are a bust, I'll probably stop the service.

I should say, I don't expect to keep all the items every time; however, I like to feel like even if I didn't keep items, I understood why the stylist sent them to me to try and I don't get that feeling these last two months. I'm happy with finding only one or two cool pieces to keep each time, but I want to feel like they're trying and this last Fix just seemed like a fail all the way around.

If you've tried Stitch Fix, how is it working for you? What do you love about it? (I love the convenience and it's fun!) I so hope Fix #8 is GREAT!

Monday, September 1, 2014

When I was a little girl, there were only three Disney Princess movies: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I loved the princesses and definitely wanted to live happily ever after (well, mostly live in Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World in real life).

But I loved other things too: Star Wars, Barbies (who almost always came with a matching Ken-Malibu Barbie and Ken, Roller Skating Barbie and Ken, and so on), Atari games such as Pac Man, Pitfall, Frogger, and Donkey Kong, Scooby Doo, playing house and school, riding bikes, and roller skating. I took ballet. I was terrible at softball. I climbed trees and skinned my knees more times than I could count. I played with girls and boys (even boys played house and school back then and we all played Star Wars together).

When I look back at pictures of myself, I see myself dressed as Casper the Ghost, a scary witch, and an Indian girl for Halloween. I was Tinkerbell once, but it wasn't any fairy dress with wings-it was a plastic mask and an ill-fitting "dress" worn over clothes.

Me as Tinkerbell, circa 1975 (age two).

Imagine the same getup with Casper's image and you have my costume for 1976.

Sophie as Tinkerbell, circa 2009 (age one). Her costume is so much cuter. My mom's decor is also a little fancier LOL.

I'm dressed in lots of primary colors, and clad mostly in jeans and shorts. I have a solid green Trapper Keeper with red, blue, and green folders inside. I have a red bike, followed by a pink dirtbike, followed by a silver, red, and black bike.

Me, circa 1980. I'm about a year older than Sophie here. For the record, I did not have football curtains. This picture was taken at a friend's house-a boy who often played Barbies with me.

Starting with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and all the Disney Princess movies that came after, princess culture was on the rise. And I thought it was great...at first. Wow, little girls can get these amazing costumes I never could when I was their age! They can meet the princesses! So fun!

And unlike some people, I think there are good lessons for little girls in the princess stories. Be kind. Be loyal. Read books (thank you, Belle). Work hard (Cinderella, Snow White, Tiana). And so on.

When I had Sophie, I definitely indulged in the princess culture with her (mostly for myself probably!). And from about two to four, she enjoyed it-she was Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, we had dinner at Cinderella's Castle, we read the books and watched the movies. It was fun. I also introduced her to Star Wars and Scooby Doo.

The first time she put this dress on, she said "I'm so pretty, Mommy!"

She's real! Disney 2011.

Ariel, the one who started a movement.

Last gasp for princess culture at my house, circa 2012.

This is still one of my favorite pictures of her. I can't help it.

And then, at five, Sophie began to move past princesses. She still loves her stuffed animals and she's not much into dolls. She's very into Star Wars, superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Angry Birds, other video games, and the like. Last fall, I introduced Sophie to Wonder Woman, because I wanted her to know a woman can be a superhero too.

I totally wanted this costume! Look at the boots! Halloween 2013.

She decided she didn't want to take dance anymore, but she did want to play basketball and soccer. She is a much better athlete than me.

Total baller. Little Spurs, 2014.

Her favorite colors are blue, red, and orange. Suddenly, it has become a struggle to find things that fit with her interests, but that isn't "boy" stuff. Take a look around any retailer: try to find a nice blue, red, or orange school backpack for a girl. NOPE. Pink, purple, or teal only.

We settled on a cute R2D2 backpack because Star Wars over everything.

He's pretty cool...lights up and talks at the push of a button. Sophie actually picked out this yellow and pink ensemble herself for the first day of school. She likes to keep me guessing.

Look for any girl's bike: no primary colors. My parents bought Sophie a "boy's" bike this week because it was in colors she liked. My mom, who like me is more girly than Sophie is, was even irritated. "I like red and blue too," my mom said. "Why does everyone think girls only like pink and purple?"

I'm tired of being asked if I want the "boy" or "girl" toy at McDonalds. When I was a kid, there was only one option and boys and girls both liked it, whether it was Snoopy or Star Wars. Sophie likes MarioKart and How to Train Your Dragon. According to my friend Erin, some boys like Beanie Babies. If you're going to give options, just ask which one Moms want...stop categorizing them by gender.

Manufacturers and retailers now want so badly to get in on the many dollars the princess culture generates that they are leaving behind girls who don't fit in to that mold. Girls like Sophie are no different from girls like me from the early 1980s with a variety of interests. It's just today, the princess stuff is seen as SO important that it trumps everything else.

In Sophie's classes, I see lots of little girls who are still engrossed in the princess culture, especially with Frozen coming out last year. Sophie loved Frozen too, but I think that was mostly because Elsa has a superpower and the music was fantastic. Mostly, I see Sophie wanting to play with the boys because she's more interested in the things they like. Her lack of interest in princess stuff sets her apart from the other girls.

This is as close as we came to a princess at Disney this year...she wanted an Elsa shirt and accessorized it with a pirate hat and eye patch!

Sometimes she says she hates all girl stuff and wants to be a boy. Sometimes she goes back and forth between girl stuff and boy stuff. For example, at theater camp this summer, she was Anna from Frozen in the first session and wore a princess dress with a too-large crown and sneakers. The next session she wore a too-small Iron Man costume with cat ears. She doesn't want to wear clothes that are too glittery, but loved getting a mani/pedi with me at the salon last week (blue on the fingers, red on the toes, of course).

As Anna. You can't see her sneakers in this photo. ;)

As SkippyJon Jones, but wearing an Iron Man costume with cat ears because THEATAH! Same sneakers!

As her mother, I love her just the way she is, but I hate to see her sometimes rejecting "girl stuff" because it isn't available in the colors she likes. I'd love to be able to find her backpacks and bikes and other basic things that are "for girls" in her favorite colors. I'm working hard to not let my decidedly more girly nature and interests affect her in a negative way. I'm probably failing more than I'm succeeding, but I'm really trying.

This is 2014. Girls can do and be whatever they want in this world. They should be able to have what they want also, in all the colors of the rainbow, not just pink and purple.